Intel, the multinational semiconductor chip maker, gears up as the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show draws near.  Everyone is eager to see what Intel has to offer and this year, they’re offering a lot.  We’ve heard about Medfield, Intel’s single core chip for tablets and smartphones pegged to come out by the second quarter, but that’s not the only thing Intel is hoping to reveal this year.  Intel will also be offering another Atom chip, due by the second half of the year, called Clover Trail.

Clover Trail is available in either single or dual core versions, which makes it a more attractive choice for tablets.  Sources are saying that tablets running Windows 8 will have the Clover Trail, and that the Atom chip will be a vehicle for hybrids as well.  Acer and Lenovo are said to be launching Clover Trail tablets running Windows 8 during the third quarter of the year.

Intel is known for providing chips for CPUs and laptops, but the company is quite intent on crossing over to the mobile realm and providing chips for smartphones and tablets.  But there’s one entity in the mobile sector that everyone goes to for chips, and that’s ARM Holdings, the largest core licenser on the general CPU market.  Most Android devices out in the market today have ARM chips in them.  Intel and ARM greatly vary, as ARM chips aren’t as power-hungry as Intel chips, making them a prime choice for mobile devices.

Intel wants to break in the mobile scene but ARM has a different thought: they want computers and laptops act like mobile devices in the sense that they are quick to boot.  Qualcomm Inc., one of ARM’s chipmakers and one of Intel’s strongest competitors, is bridging the way for ARM to crossover.  At this year’s CES, Qualcomm is said to be unveiling Ultrabooks armed with ARM chips.

According to Daniel Amir, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in San Francisco, if ARM chips are accepted in the PC and laptop/netbook/ultrabook sector, this could cost Intel $2.2 billion by 2015.

But Intel is not about to let ARM take the spotlight, as they are said to be launching a power-efficient chip dubbed Ivy Bridge, reported to be available by April 2012.  The Ivy Bridge uses 22-nanometer architecture, which makes it 30% smaller than the current chips for smaller real estate and lower power consumption.

DigiTimes reports that the first Ivy Bridge processors to launch will be quad-core desktop processors such as the Core i7-3370 series and the Core i5-3570, 3550, and 3450.  While the first Ivy Bridge notebook chips to launch will be the Core i7 chips 3920QM, 3820QM, and 3720QM and the Core i5 processors will soon follow.